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Episode 1364: Rounding Second and Heading for Home
Date April 18, 2019 Summary Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller banter about Johnny Cooney as the Vroom Vroom Guy, minor-league closer Dusten Knight’s backflip save-celebration ritual, the extreme struggles of the Red Sox, and a new way to represent Willians Astudillo’s success at making contact, then answer listener emails about umpires calling balls and strikes from second base and the most commonly known things about baseball, plus a Stat Blast about the disappearance of old pitchers. Topics * Ball/strike calls from a different view * The most commonly known things about baseball Intro The Undertones, "Jump Boys" Outro The Capes, "First Base" Banter * Triples are still down this season * Episode 1217 follow-up: Is Johnny Cooney the 'Vroom Vroom' guy? * Backflip save celebration * Boston Red Sox * New plus stats on FanGraphs Email Questions * Doug Graham: "Robot umps are back in the news thanks to the report from Boston University master lecturer Mark T. Williams and his team of graduate students that showed MLB home plate umpires missed 34,294 Pitch Calls in 2018, which is around 14 per game. Instead of robot umps I think it might be better to just have the second base ump call balls and strikes instead. It seems like they would get a better view. How much would making that change reduce the number of missed pitch calls per game do you think?" * Robbie (Potomac, MD): "A podcast point of conversation that always interests me is how someone who was plucked from another era, or someone who has never seen baseball at all, would relate to baseball today. This has come into my life a bit recently, as my girlfriend and I have been dating since January, so this week has been our first baseball experience together. The first game we watched was the O’s and A’s on Monday night. Yes, people actually watch that. She saw ERA flashed across the screen and pronounced it like a word, not an acronym. I decided to explain to her the streak that Chris Davis was having, and the difference between him and Khris Davis. I considered telling her about .247 but realized she doesn’t know what batting average is. In the first inning, an A’s batter fouled a pitch off and she asked why he didn’t run! I guess us fans really take for granted that people know anything at all about baseball. It also got me thinking: what is the baseball thing that is most commonly known? It could be a rule, a strategy, or a cultural phenomenon." Stat Blast * Where have all the older pitchers gone? * There should be about 1,400 innings from aged 36 and older innings based on history, but MLB is on pace for around 1,000 of those innings this season. * In 2016 there should have been about 2,200 innings pitched by pitchers 36 and older, there were only 1,500 innings pitched, which was the biggest drop in innings pitched from age 36 to age 37. Notes * Willians Astudillo has the best strikeout percentage plus in history with 14%+. * It was only in the 1980s that MLB stopped paying for the uniforms and gear to be supplied to teams. Links * Episode 1364: Rounding Second and Heading for Home * Backflip save celebration videos * Aroldis Chapman somersault video * Classifying MLB's Closer Celebrations by Jeff Sullivan * FanGraphs K%+ Leaderboard * The Average Umpire Is Almost 50. The Best Ones Might Be in Their 30s. by Jared Diamond * The Roots - Rising Up ft. Wale, Chrisette Michele * The White Sox Cap and Hip-Hop Culture by Shakeia Taylor * The History of Baseball Metaphors in American Politics by Bryan Curtis * What would happen if a baseball game went 50 innings? by Sam Miller * Baseball Goes to Extremes by Ben Lindbergh Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes